Septième Amour
by Sydelle
Summary: It's Lily's and James' seventh year at Hogwarts; the year Lily agrees to finally go on a date with James. Struggling with her studies and her mother's death, what did James do that finally made Lily like him back?
1. Head Boy, Head Girl

**Septième Amour  
  
_Intro:_**  
  
_Yay, this is my first fanfic... Hopefully you'll like it and I'll get plenty of reviews. And hopefully, this'll be the only time I'll have to write an intro, because there isn't much I can say really.  
  
All characters here belong to JK Rowling (Except for the ones you don't recognize)!_

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**Chapter One: Head Boy, Head Girl**  
  
Lily breathed in slowly; her hand paused reluctantly halfway to the brass knocker of Remus' door. Her hand slowly lowered back to her side, and she subconsciously stared around Remus' yard. It was extremely lovely, large, and covered with many magical herbs. "Herbs, huh. That's weird." Lily thought.  
  
A white bird flew by and excreted, the result landing a couple of centimetres away from her right foot. Sickened, she edged a little towards the left of the white porch, accidentally bumping her head on a hanging plant.  
  
Slightly freaked and even disgusted, at what she was doing, she knocked on the door, with the sole intention of speaking to James. "Might as well get it over with... before I hurt myself badly," Lily thought, referring to her "escapade" with the plant.  
  
Remus Lupin appeared at the doorway, surprised at who was standing on his porch.  
  
"Oookay... You'd think he'd stop gaping at me now and moved onto drooling on the door frame or something," Lily thought, already annoyed.  
  
"So? Is Potter here?"  
  
"Yeah but... um, not that I mind or anything, but how did you know to come to my house?" Lupin asked, quite clearly puzzled.  
  
"Yeah, well, I owled James' mother and she told me he was here, and told me your address. You don't mind, do you?" She said briskly, and continued, "I would've owled you, but my sister, Petunia, hid him from me."  
  
Pause.  
  
"Do you mind?" Lily repeated, now slightly concerned.  
  
"Guess not." Remus shrugged. "Not that it's any of my business, but... why are you looking for James?"  
  
"Gretle told me he was head boy. I needed to see his letter... or at least hear it from him for myself," Lily replied curtly.  
  
"Huh. Why not just owl Dumbledore then?" Remus silently mused, "Ah well, better not question her logic."  
  
"So? Can I talk to him or not?" Lily asked, perhaps disturbed by Remus' expression.  
  
"Yeah. PRONGS!" Remus hollered, looking diagonally upwards. A window opened and Sirius' head popped out.  
  
"Huh? What?" Sirius asked, appearing to be chewing. Lily could see his mouth full of bread. Very dignified, no?  
  
"PRONGS Sirius."  
  
"Oh... Prongs, your girlfriend's here to see you." Sirius said as he withdrew his head, not bothering to lower his voice.  
  
There was a small poofing sound. Guessing Sirius was just hit by a pillow, Lily smiled contently to herself. "Serves him right," Lily thought, "I'm NOT his girlfriend. I think I've made that pretty clear by now. Not even his friend." Lily shuddered slightly at the thought.  
  
"Cold? Come in then." Remus said, but just then the porch door swung open again, knocking onto Lily's nose.  
  
"You'd think that it'd be safer on the porch, wouldn't you?" Lily muttered.  
  
"Oh. Sorry Evans." James said, cringing.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes and replied coldly, "It's fine."  
  
"So... to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit on this fine August day?" James asked, grinning. His hand subconsciously moved towards his hair, but he stopped just in time with a slightly alarmed look.  
  
Lily smiled at him, softened. "Potter... Are you head boy?" she blurted, before she could realize what she was saying.  
  
Lily watched anxiously as James' face grew sour. "What's that to you?" he muttered. Suddenly he brightened and grinned sheepishly. "Head girl then Evans?" he asked.  
  
Lily's heart sank and she nodded.  
  
His grin grew so large Lily was worried his face was going to split in half. "Oh... Evans wants her special time with me..."  
  
"No," Lily replied firmly. Just for confirmation though, she asked if he was head boy again. James nodded, "Yup."  
  
Trying to distract herself, Lily tried to take a peak inside of Remus' house as the porch door was still open, but Remus was still standing in the doorframe. Just then a RED-HAIRED Sirius stormed downstairs, and appeared behind Lupin, asking, "Where is that blasted idiot?"  
  
"If you mean Peter, he's in the kitchen." Remus said irritably. Lily saw James smirking at Sirius' hair, who did a rude gesture with his hands (Sirius obviously, not his hair).  
  
Remus followed Sirius back into the house, Sirius saying, "Stupid Wormtail was trying to change the colour of his sweater. God knows where he got his aiming genes."  
  
Remus chuckled.  
  
"It's not funny. Do you know the counter curse?" Sirius asked fiercely.  
  
There was some muttering, and then Sirius yelping.  
  
"Sorry! Wrong... wrong spell..." Remus said, laughing.  
  
"MY EARS ARE SEVEN FRICKIN INCHES!" Sirius shouted, earning more laughter from Remus, and James.  
  
"How can they find that amusing?" Lily thought, but she knew she was smiling too.  
  
James closed the porch door, his laughter subsiding. "He has a nice laugh," Lily thought, "This is the first time he'd laughed like that in front of me. Usually he just demonstrates the phrase 'roaring with laughter'... For the audience I suppose."  
  
"So, Evans... that all?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
There was another pause, and then James' disappointed face broke into a grin again. "Oh! I have a hunch that Evans only came all this way to see me..."  
  
"Don't kid yourself." Lily said icily, turning to go. She stepped briskly off the porch and heard James snicker.  
  
"What?" Lily asked, in what she hoped was an annoyed, and not curious, voice.  
  
"Nothing Evans. Nothing." James said quietly, "Just that... there's bird poop on your shoe."  
  
He sounded almost frightened.  
  
Lily glared at him and turned around to leave, steaming. Unfortunately, the path leading away from Remus' house was still a little wet, causing Lily to slip a little and fall backwards.  
  
Before she landed on the porch step however, she saw James leap forward, apparently trying to catch her, but it was too late. She slipped through his arms and fell down, her head colliding painfully with the first step of the porch.  
  
"This house is cursed." Lily said through clenched teeth, trying to stop her eyes from watering.  
  
James face darkened. "No Evans, it's not."  
  
Lily gave him one last glare and walked quickly away.

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_**A/N**  
  
Please don't forget to review! The second chapter is almost done, and it'll definitely be more exciting than this. Now go on. Click the go button down there... _


	2. Arrival at Hogwarts

**Septième Amour**

**_Intro:_**

_Well okay, I said that this chapter will be extremely exciting, but it turns out I had to push the excitement to the third chapter. I wasn't expecting this chapter to almost kill me. So now, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the third chapter for some real action to begin._

**_All characters here belong to JK Rowling (Except for the ones you don't recognize)! _**

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**Chapter Two: Arrival at Hogwarts**

Lily Evans was sitting alone the prefect's compartment on the Hogwarts express, waiting for James and the other prefects to arrive. She began to fiddle with the piece of parchment on which she wrote her speech and was just starting to read it out loud when she was interrupted when the compartment door slid open.

A grinning James stepped in. Privately, she hoped that he won't mention her visit to Remus' house. "So... have you missed me?" he asked.

"How dumb can you get?" Lily thought to herself, but said coolly instead, "Excuse me Potter?"

James shook his head and sat down across from her, looking out the window. "Nice day huh?" he asked, "When are the other little prefects gonna come?"

Lily tensed. "Don't think you're better than them Potter, just because you're head boy. Dumbledore must've been drunk when he appointed you." There was silence, and then, thinking she'd overreacted, Lily said, "Besides, you should at least know where your dear old _Moony_ quote unquote is. After all, you ­_do_ go to school with him."

"I didn't come with him, I came with Sirius. You'd think you'd have noticed. After all, it's been seven years of school together." James looked slightly hurt.

"Yes well, I have better things to do than to notice you." Lily looked out the window.

A few moments passed in silence.

"Hello James! Hi Lily!"

Lily turned around and saw Gretle Dereson standing at the doorway, smiling at her.

It wasn't long before the two girls began to chat happily, while James just sat there, staring at them, looking slightly disgruntled.

"Hey James. Don't worry, your friends'll come soon enough." Gretle told him.

"Actually don't you mean ­_just one_ friend? Remus and you are the only two Gryffindor prefects in our year." James paused, glancing at Lily, who was examining the compartment.

"Besides, I don't socialize with low-life, especially Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. And sort of Ravenclaw." James added in a lower voice.

Lily rolled her eyes, wondering why the other prefects weren't here yet. She looked at her watch. Oh right, it was only ten forty.

"Potter, how come you're on the train this early?"

Gretle looked at Lily's watch and nodded. "Yeah. You usually come at ten fifty nine, don't you?"

"Yes, but I wanted to spend some quality time with Evans here. Hint hint."

Gretle pretended to only hear the unoffensive part of the sentence (which is...?).

"Who's Sirius hanging out with since Remus isn't here?" Gretle asked, trying and failing, to sound casual.

"Peter."

"Oh."

Lily, seeing James opening his mouth to say something else, quickly began to talk to Gretle again.

At around ten to eleven, a newly appointed prefect called Jordan (from Hufflepuff) arrived. "Whoa! Sweet compartment!"

Lily raised her eyebrows at his choice of words and smiled, saying, "I know, it is, isn't it? It changes every year."

After a while, more prefects began to arrive; James and Remus wandered off somewhere, while Lily chatted endlessly with her friends.

Soon after, Lily felt it was time for James and her to make a speech, seeing as that was what the other head boys and girls did before them.

Lily pushed her way through the compartment, and asked James if he prepared his speech. He looked slightly alarmed. "What speech?"

Patiently, she explained to him.

"Oh." James said, "Whatever, I'll just improvise."

And catching look of Lily's face, James quickly said, "Hey, you couldn't have expected me to know, could you? I wasn't a prefect before."

Trying very hard not to ask him why he didn't bother to find out what they did on the Hogwarts Express, she turned to walk away.

"Evans? Do you want me to get their attention for you?"

Lily shrugged. "Yeah I guess."

There were butterflies in her stomach. "Lily? Why are you worrying?" she asked herself, "it's James that'll be embarrassed if he doesn't have a speech so why on Earth are you so concerned?"

After getting everyone's attention by coughing twelve times, James announced proudly, "May I have your attention please? As head boy, I now proclaim it is the time that we all listen to the dashing Lily Evans' speech."

Lily felt her face grow hot, and looked around for somewhere to stand. Instead, James told everyone else to take a seat on the connected plush sofa.

She stood in the middle of the room and began to read her speech from her parchment, gaining more and more confidence as she went. She knew she was doing fine; a lot of eye contact, and there was a lot of approving faces in the crowd.

She said the typical things ('high expectations for the prefects', 'non-abusage of badge', 'punctuation at the meetings' etc).

James walked to stand beside Lily, most of the other prefects snickered, but the ones who didn't know him well looked at him expectantly.

He cleared his throat.

"Well, it is certainly most honourable for me to be presented with this badge. But since I have it, I may as well try to use it to the best extent of my ability." No one but Lily caught the sarcasm in his voice.

James smirked at Snape, who looked away. Most of the prefects were amazed at his improvising ability (as most of them knew he was going to be improvising anyway. James never really did work for anything).

"This year, I'm hoping that all of you great prefects," he beamed at Remus, "will use your badge responsibly." He sounded rather sarcastic and bored still, but continued after grinning at Lily's face. No one except for her and maybe Remus though, caught him point, just slightly, to Snape when he said the word "responsibly".

He continued for another minute and a half, and ended with, "I hope this year will be an excellent year, for our dear Dumbledore is depending on us for it to be."

There was some scattered applause as James bowed.

The rest of the Hogwarts trip was uneventful. Prefects strolled in and out of the compartment, some to visit their friends in other compartments, and some on duty.

As the day progressed, the prefects became slightly bored and settled into doing more quiet activities, like reading, napping, just looking out the window, or playing cards (not exploding snap much because Lily kept on glaring at the players for disrupting the silence).

The Hogwarts Express finally began to slow down and eventually stopped. Chatter immediately filled the air and everyone stretched a bit and there was a hustle as they filed slowly out the compartment door.

"Wait!" Lily shouted. Everybody turned to look at her, annoyed.

Reddening a little, Lily said, "Have you forgotten? I need two prefects from each house in years five and six to go outside and monitor the younger students."

"We _know_!" a girl from Slytherin said loudly, rolling her eyes. "Potter already reminded us while you were out patrolling."

"Yes well I'm not omniscient you know." Lily snapped.

The prefects continued filing out. Soon, only Lily and James were remaining.

Lily was almost at the door when James somehow stepped on her foot. "OW!!!!!!!" Lily exclaimed.

"Sorry Evans!" James said.

"You need to take off a few pounds." Lily said bitterly.

James grinned.

Lily turned to leave, slightly annoyed. After all, James was partially responsible for the Slytherin girl's comment.

"Hey Evans?"

"Yeah?" Lily turned.

"I should've told you I reminded them."

Lily nodded. "Yes well... I guess it wasn't your fault. I'm NOT omniscient you know."

James looked slightly confused.

"Probably doesn't even know what that means." Lily sighed, and smiled a little in spite of herself.

Right before the feast ended, Dumbledore beckoned for Lily and James to go and stand in front of the high table.

During the entirety of the headmaster's speech, Lily and James just stood there, Lily smiling and James looking bored. He began to pick at a piece of wood that stuck out from the table. Lily tried her best not to look at him.

Dumbledore never did make his speeches very long, and Lily was never more grateful. Her legs were beginning to ache, and she felt a little awkward standing there.

After the rest of the students began to file out of the Great Hall, Dumbledore approached them, smiling benignly through his half-moon glasses. Lily wondered why he had picked James. Just to torture her maybe.

"Well, that'll be all you have to do tonight." He said, eyes twinkling. "The other prefects are away taking the new students into the dormitory... Why don't I show you the head prefects' room? They refurnished it this summer."

Lily gaped at him. There was a special room for the head prefects? That was new.

"Come along then Lily, James." Dumbledore said, already beginning to head out of the Hall.

"Sir?" Lily heard James ask. "Sir, what's the point of a head prefects' room?"

"Well of course you two should plan events together without any interruptions. You are, after all, the executives. Shouldn't you be allowed a special treat?"

Lily was in a trance. Plan? ... Together? SPECIAL TREAT?!

"If you and Lily could come here every Friday afternoon perhaps? Just to talk a little. Interaction never hurts." He chuckled.

"Now, the events that ought to be planned by the two of you are the decorations for the Great Hall for Christmas, and Halloween. Teachers will help of course."

Dumbledore looked back at Lily and James and smiled.

"But I mainly want you to worry about the yule ball. I do believe that the yule ball is the one large festivity that is entirely up to the two of you."

They rounded several more corridors and finally arrived at a mahogany door on the third floor. Dumbledore smiled even wider and opened it from the side, his baby blue eyes practically dancing.

The door opened. Lily gasped in awe. James said, "Whoa..." in a very low voice.

The room was beautiful.

"Wow!" Lily managed to say.

It was very much like the great hall. The ceiling was the same, and there were floating candles, casting flickering shadows on the polished wooden floor. In addition to the candles, there were beautiful, reflective, golden bubbles that seemed to float around.

And it was huge!

"It's the size of a standard football field." Lily thought. Her 'wow' had echoed just slightly, even though the "room" was filled with beautiful furniture.

Bean bag chairs (or at least they looked like bean bag chairs) were scattered here and there on the floor. Lily walked slowly towards them and settled on one, studying the fabric.

She tried to swallow a gasp as the "bean bag chair" wiggled a little, as though content someone was sitting on it. The fabric of the chair began to change colour from lavender to a shade of blue. Lily got up and continued to walk around.

There were seven large five-seat couches that seemed to be jiggling a little. Like jelly. Lily resisted the urge to go and pinch it.

She ran her hands along the smooth wood of the large, rectangular table in the middle. It was the deepest brown she'd ever seen, and the table was as big as those used to host meetings in large muggle companies. A large dangling crystal chandelier towered above the table, hanging in mid-air.

There were three large "bookcases" on the left wall behind the table.

One bookcase was filled with many unusual books with old fonts.

The middle "bookcase" contained different objects Lily had never seen before. They were structures of the most wondrous shapes, and they seemed to be slowly changing. Most of them were silver, but a few crystal spirals twisted slowly.

The last one only had two shelves. The top one was filled with many different shapes of mirrors, and there was a sneakoscope on the bottom shelf as well as several pieces of parchment.

"And only the two of us are allowed in here?" James asked hoarsely.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Well, I'd better leave you two then. Halloween decorations need to be done. I suggest you work on it. Good night." Dumbledore walked away, pleased, leaving the two awe-struck prefects lying on the couches.

"Well." Lily finally said. "Hogwarts continues to surprise me still."

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**_A/N_**

_Well, finally I finished it. Don't tell me all that typing was for nothing. Now PLEASE review!_


	3. Mudblood and Filth

**Septième Amour  
  
_Intro:_**

_...? There's nothing to say..._

_All characters here belong to JK Rowling (Except for the ones you don't recognize)!_

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**Chapter Three: Mudblood and Filth**

After a few moments of silence, Lily said, yawning, "Well I'm off then."

Before she could reach the door however, she heard James ask, "Why do you like Snape so much?"

"Huh?" Lily said, surprised. She thought for a moment and replied briskly, "I don't."

"Then why is it that you're so... bothered by the fact that we... sorta tease him?"

Lily snorted. "That's an understatement." Then added, "You could try being nicer. Stop picking fights with him for starters."

James opened his mouth to say something else, but Lily cut him off.

"Don't say you haven't cursed him since last year; I saw you turning him into a cactus on the train today."

She was halfway out the door when James said quietly, "You didn't stop me."

"Huh?

"Why didn't you stop me? From teasing him?"

"Because when I got there, Lupin had just turned him back."

"Oh."

The following day passed rather uneventfully. The talk regarding NEWTs issued as expected, arousing a shadow of panic in the halls.

Lily noticed many new faces grin or smile as she approached, and sometimes felt a flicker of arrogance stir within her, for her prefect's badge did give her a lot of pride, resting against the dark of her robes. Whenever that would happen, Lily felt immediately ashamed and even took her badge down as a way to scold herself for thinking in an arrogant way.

On Thursday, her third day since she arrived at Hogwarts, James approached her in the Great Hall during dinner, and announced himself –"Rather haughtily," Lily thought- quidditch captain, throwing huge grins at Lily and obvious winks to her friends.

With the exception of Gretle, who sometimes hung around the marauders and sometimes Lily ("acting rather like a happy, drifting cloud," Lily thought one night), all of Lily's other friends were quite taken with James. Lily thought he was a git, and Gretle just saw James as her quidditch captain (she played chaser) and a friend.

James also said that they wouldn't be able to meet at the Head Prefect's room tomorrow because he'd received detention from their Care of Magical Creatures professor, for attempting to set nifflers lose in the dungeons, in hopes that they would somehow manage to slip into the Slytherin common room.

Friday morning arrived, along with a howler for Sirius.

Lily wasn't paying much attention to the marauders when the smoking red envelope came, as she was too caught up in examining what was in her porridge.

It was only when Alana said suddenly, "Oh! Howler!" when Lily finally looked up (or rather, left) and saw a pale Sirius glancing nervously at the envelope.

James reached for the howler, looking troubled and then said something to Sirius, who laughed weakly. Sirius then took the envelope from James and opened it slowly. A shrill, loud, musty and horrible scream filled the Great Hall. Through the corner of her eyes, Lily saw Bellatrix Black from the Slytherin table snicker.

"SIRIUS YOU FILTHY DISGRACE OF A PUREBLOOD! IF I DIDN'T KNOW BETTER, I WOULD COME TO HOGWARTS RIGHT NOW, AND PERSONALLY TAKE YOU HOME! JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL THIS SUMMER! YOU MAY THINK YOU'RE GOING TO THAT OBNOXIOUS JAMES' HOUSE, BUT I'VE ALREADY SPOKEN TO HIS FOOL OF FATHER, AND HE'S AGREED TO LET YOU COME AND... "VISIT". YOU'D BETTER STOP LIVING AT JAMES' HOUSE NOW IF YOU EXPECT TO BE TREATED RESPECTFULLY IN THE BLACK HOUSEHOLD AGAIN! TO THINK, MY OWN SON, LIVING WITH A BUNCH OF MUDBLOOD LOVING FILTH! YOU TRAITOROUS DIMWIT! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY SIRIUS! WE'VE NEVER HAD THESE TYPE OF PROBLEMS WITH YOUR BROTHER OR ANY OF YOUR COUSINS! LOOK UP TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE!"

The howler burst into flames.

Lily looked at the Slytherin table. All of them were already roaring with laughter, and Bellatrix stood up and bowed, earning applause from her friends. Bellatrix saw Lily looking and mouthed something at her that she couldn't catch. Lily scowled at her and looked sympathetically down the table at the marauders.

Peter was staring at Sirius, wearing the same expression of pity as Lily. Lupin was frowning, and saying something to James, who was listening intently while glaring so fiercely at the Slytherins, that if looks could kill, half of the Great Hall would be melting, and Sirius was staring at his porridge, eyes unfocused.

Lily averted her eyes and instead looked around the rest of the hall. Her green eyes were flashing, and her lips slightly pursed, offended at the letter and angry at the Slytherins.

"Hey Lily..." Alana asked. "Are you okay?"

Lily nodded.

The Gryffindors were mainly eating now, trying to look as though nothing happened, talking in louder voices than necessary. The Ravenclaws and Hufflpuffs looked horrified at what they just heard, and kept on shooting expressions of sympathy towards Sirius.

Lily turned back to her porridge and kept on eating, though her appetite was gone.

How could Sirius' family be like that? She'd always thought Sirius was annoying, but, never, in a zillion years, would she have imagined him to be born to such a nasty family.

Then her thoughts involuntarily shifted to James. James had let Sirius stay in his house. For a second, Lily felt an upsurge of liking for the marauders, but then it became reduced to a size equivalent of a finger. No matter what, James and Sirius were still conceited and big-headed...

James was now looking at the Slytherins with murder in his eyes, not listening to a word Lupin was saying. Peter was now talking to a girl beside him, constantly shifting his eyes to Sirius and back. Lily could tell he wasn't really focused on his conversation with the girl. Lupin was still trying to talk to James, and Sirius was still staring at his porridge.

Lily thought that, if she was in Sirius' situation, she'd just get out of the hall before suffering further from embarrassment.

"Too proud probably. Apparently, marauders don't run from anything," Lily thought, remembering something James told her.

After a couple more minutes, the howler was driven from her mind when one of her friends, Shauna, told her that they had double Divination this morning with the Ravenclaws, followed by Astronomy with the Hufflepuffs and then lunch. Lily greeted this unpleasant news with a groan.

Apart from history of magic, Lily's least favourite subject is Divination. The teacher, Professor Grabinde, was a silly ancient man, almost as old as Dumbledore himself, who wiggled around the classroom, popping behind students, scaring them.

Lily followed Shauna, Alanna, Daniela, Shauna's boyfriend (Greg), and Alanna's boyfriend (Dean) upstairs to the East tower where divination is usually held.

Before leaving the Great Hall, Lily looked back and saw Sirius, laughing, pour his porridge on James. James looked surprised, but then joined Remus, Peter, and Sirius in their mirth, glad his best friend was back to normal.

On the way, Lily's friends began talking about Sirius' howler, looking constantly over their shoulders to make sure the marauders weren't behind them.

"Wow, that James sure is loyal, letting Sirius stay at his house." Shauna said after a while. Greg looked alarmed and practically lunged to hold her hand.

"Did you see the way he was looking at the Slytherins? It was so creepy!" Shauna breathed.

Alanna nodded. "Yeah... I have to say, that James can be very hot sometimes."

"Oh please!" Greg and Lily muttered as Dean tisked and wrapped his arm tighter around a giggling Alanna.

Daniela grinned and linked her hands through Lily's.

"We're all married here." Daniela said. Shauna and Alanna blushed. The boys grinned teasingly at them.

"Anyway Lily! What do you think about James now?" Shauna asked suddenly, breaking her gaze with Greg.

"He's still the same old James." Lily muttered, and then added as an afterthought, "I guess he's... nicer though."

Daniela beamed at her while Dean started clapping (but then stopped after an alarmed look as no one else was applauding their approval). For some strange reason, all of Lily's friends wanted her and James to end up together.

"I still think he's a stupid jerk though." Lily grinned and watched her friends' faces fall.

After climbing a couple more flights of stairs, they were joined by Gretle, who enthusiastically began to talk about the "hotness of Sirius".

Lily and her friends had heard zillions of times this talk, but Alanna and Daniela were always still interested. Soon after, "Lily's crowd" rearranged themselves so that Lily had her arms linked with Shauna instead, walking with Dean and Greg behind Gretle, Alanna and Daniela. It wasn't long before Lily and Greg began a heated debate about owl mail, Shauna occasionally commenting.

"Well now students... Today, we shall fully discover the finishing touches to the crystal ball. Who can tell me what the last change to the crystal ball was?" Professor Grabinde wheezed then pointed to Nathan who had his hand up.

"Yes Mr. Lovegood?"

"A hinkypunk once cross-breeded with a jellyfish, and came up with a new life form, called the hinkjelly."

Many students, including Peter, snickered. James and Sirius however, were looking at Nathan with just a little look of amusement, whilst Lupin fought to contain the urge to roll his eyes; he settled for just smiling encouragingly.

"He'd make a good teacher some day." Lily thought.

Nathan seemed not to be fazed. He was sitting beside his girlfriend, Merilyn, who was staring dreamily and unfocused into a crystal ball.

"The hinkjelly," Nathan continued, "produced a significant-"

"That's enough Mr. Lovegood." Professor Grabinde said irritably.

The rest of the lesson continued normally enough. No one seemed too eager to bring up the howler incident after seeing James' face.

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_**A/N**_

A/N: REVIEW!!!!!! I can't stress that enough. Lol. Also, check out my bio because that's where I'll post the next chapter's name and how far I am into it. Now please review!!!


	4. Rudy

**Septième Amour**

**_Intro:_**

_Well, it turns out that I changed my mind about the chapter's name. Instead of the Marauder's Map, it's now called "Rudy". I've decided to re-adjust my order of events (again), so that The Marauder's Map's happenings transpire later on. This is the chapter where... Hmm, well, why spoil it? You'll be reading it anyway (AND REVIEWING. lol). By the way, it begins on Saturday, the day after the howler. The dates are extremely important to the plot, and if you know the dates well, and the final plot reveals itself, everything will fall into place. And, no, the final plot hasn't begun yet. You'll know when it has (And yes, I know it's boring right now, but please bear with me)._

_Characters here belong_ _to JK Rowling, not me (except for the ones you don't recognize)!_

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**Chapter 4: "Rudy"**

"Why don't you do us all of favour and stuff your head down a pipe?" Lily spat, her green eyes burning.

"Ooooooooh... Evans is jealous of me!" Bellatrix shrieked.

Lily smiled sarcastically. "Hmm. Yeah. Of course I'd be jealous. Who wouldn't be jealous of a deluded self-centered crazy half-girl?"

Bellatrix paled and smirked. "What did you say? You can't even think of a good insult. Bella, on the other hand, has plenty."

Lily shrugged and started walking down the hall, saying, "You know you're crazy when you start speaking in third person."

The library door opened and the marauders stepped out, doubled over with laughter; Peter's eyes were practically streaming.

"YOU'RE the half-girl here, you mudblood."

Lily spun around. James' and Sirius' laughter stopped. She heard Lupin telling Peter to shush. Silence was immediate.

Then, a few things happened at once. Bellatrix cast a spell at Lily, who leapt aside. The curse advanced instead to Sirius, whose wand was out. He started to reflect it to a suit of armour – but not fast enough.

Sirius managed to gasp, "Holy!" before a large stream of miniature scorpions came out of his mouth.

They crawled slowly down his face; pincers cutting into Sirius' skin, causing rather heavy bleeding. The scorpions clung onto his robes, landing with a soft plink on the floor.

James was livid. He gave an indignant sort of roar and plunged his hands into his robe.

Sirius managed to moan, "Prongs! I'm okay!" while Remus plucked a few scorpions off Sirius' robe (Peter was slowly edging away).

"No you aren't!" James snarled, and pointed his wand at a stunned Bellatrix.

Lily saw Remus' mouth open, but before any word could tumble out, James glared at him and hissed, "I don't care."

Remus took a step back. "Erm. Okay then."

Lily, having finally stopped staring at Sirius (who was bleeding very, very, badly), quickly started vanishing all the scorpions on the floor. No one paid her much attention.

She had no chance to yell a countercurse. James' spell hit Bellatrix on her stomach. Nothing seemed to happen for three heart-stopping seconds. Then, Bellatrix began to change.

Her skin, what was a beautiful ivory, changed rapidly to a dark, murky brown. Her hair was getting shorter, her eyes growing darker, and her hands became paws; she dropped her wand. Fur sprouted all over her face and legs (which were becoming paws) as her back hunched and spiked.

All the while, she was screaming curses, but as her wand wasn't in her hand, nothing happened. Soon however, having realized that if the shrinking continued, her voice would be lost, Bellatrix began to scream, "Rudy! Rudy!" instead.

Soon, her voice, too, stopped; Bellatrix was a porcupine.

In that state even, Bellatrix was beautiful (for a porcupine). And like all of the Blacks, her arrogance was still pronounced. Lily walked over to pick her up, but Bellatrix stuck her nose in the air and began to crawl away.

"Huh! Fine then." Lily said indignantly, and turned around to talk to the marauders, but they were gone.

"How...? Where'd they go?" Lily thought, puzzled, but then, around the corner, came Rudolphus Lestrange, answering Bellatrix's call. And behind him was the transfiguration teacher.

"Miss Evans! What do you mean by this?" Professor Iburin breathed once she glanced at Bellatrix, crawling frantically to her boyfriend.

"It was like that when I got here." Lily muttered, averting her eyes. Bellatrix gave an indignant sound somewhere between a squeal and a snort.

Lestrange cast one look at the porcupine (who was now scratching his shoes) and snickered.

"I heard Bella calling. Thought I might ask Professor Iburin along. And what do you know? It turns out you've transfigured a student!"

Lestrange looked around. "Where is Bella anyway?"

Bellatrix whined and scratched harder, leaving marks. Lily sniffed, bemused.

The professor raised her eyebrows and pointed. "Do you not recognize this to be Miss Black?"

"Wha-? What do you mean? I'd recognize Bella—" He peered down and a look of dawning appeared on his face and lasted for a while. Then he turned quite purple.

"You!" he accused, pointing a finger at Lily.

Taking a step back, Lily answered as calmly as possible, "Yes?"

"Don't act so innocent! You did it didn't you? Professor—"

But the professor was shaking her head. "No, I'm afraid that the only evidence against Miss Evans is not good enough. And she herself said that the situation was like this when she arrived..."

Lestrange looked like he'd explode. The porcupine however walked quickly over to Lily and tried to raise one of her stubby paws in her direction.

"See?!" Lestrange spat, "See? Bella says so! Erm... Madam."

The professor sighed at his immaturity. "I'm afraid I can't take just her and your word. It's not a secret you and Lily aren't the best of friends..."

Both Bellatrix and Lestrange fell silent, twitching.

"Well." The professor said as she picked up the porcupine. "Come with me Mr. Lestrange. We have to take her to the hospital wing. It'll do no one good if a porcupine shows up in class."

Lestrange looked amused. "Porcupine?"

"Yes. It's a muggle animal." Lily said, trying not to sound too gleeful at the outcome.

Lestrange looked to see how far away Professor Iburin was and breathed, "It's not over yet. Mudblood."

Bellatrix gave a squeal and Lestrange ran off to catch up. As they rounded the corner, Lily heard him hiss, "I know she did it professor! Just a drop of veritaserum will prove it!"

There was a pause as the professor hesitated, "I don't think so Mr. Lestrange. It's a violation of privacy, and as she's the head girl, we owe her our trust."

"But—"

"Please Mr. Lestrange. This subject has ended." Then, without giving him a chance to react, Professor Iburin continued briskly, "Now I trust you need to know how long before the spell wears off?"

"Yes please, Madam."

"The truth is, I'm not sure. This is one of the most complex temporary transfiguration spells I've seen in a long time... Extremely strong—"

"Yes well. About how long?" Lestrange interrupted.

"I expect she'll be back to normal in the first week of October, though I can't be sure." The professor answered, her voice fading as they got farther away.

Lily sighed and began to walk back to her dormitory, her insides writhing with guilt.

* * *

**_A/N:_**

_Please review and check out my other Harry Potter fanfic._


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